BY
Having written often about the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and also the National Agency to Prevent Corruption (NAPC), there has been no mention as yet of the National Agency for the Investigation and Disposal of Assets (obtained through corruption and other crime). That is due to the fact that the NAIDA doesn’t yet exist.
Logically however, if the NAPC is a largely preventative independent entity, and NABU is an independent investigative/prosecuting agency, questions arise regarding not only with what to do with nefariously and criminally acquired and subsequently recovered assets, but also who is to be charged with actually dealing with the disposal of those assets – transparently, legitimately and with institutional integrity. This is the role of NAIDA – or it will be. It’s role is not only domestic, but to interact with external actors too with regard to recovery etc.
As the current methods of asset arrest and eventual disposal, to be charitable is inefficient and somewhat opaque, with $billions in misappropriated assets potentially to be subjected to arrest and disposal, notwithstanding that which already is, it would seem rather prudent to get on with creating this agency post haste.
Public selection of candidates via public applications for this agency tentatively begins in the immediate future, with the goal of an operational agency of 100 personnel by the year end. The plan is to have a public register of what has been arrested, what has been deemed by the court necessary for disposal, what has been disposed of, how and for how much if sold/auctioned,as well as detailing what has been returned following judicial rulings – which should make it quite a popular e-register.
Perhaps bets should be placed upon whether the NAIDA register will manage to generate figures larger than the annual national budget.
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